SUNRISE, Fla. — With general manager Steve Yzerman watching from the press box, the Detroit Red Wings showed how far they still have to grow.
The Florida Panthers used a pair of power plays Saturday at FLA Live Arena to build momentum, and rode that to a 6-2 victory. Robby Fabbri and Tyler Bertuzzi had the Wings’ goals and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic mopped up after Thomas Greiss was pulled midway through the game.
“They just played a lot faster than us,” forward Sam Gagner said. “We need to be better in a lot of areas. Forecheck better, break out of our end better, compete harder on pucks. We have to be better five-on-five, special teams, everything.”
The loss came 24 hours after the Wings were dinged three times during penalty kills by the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers and Lightning are among the NHL’s elite, and for all the strides the Wings (24-26-6) have made this season, they still lack the scoring power, defensive mentality and special teams to measure up.
“We have to start finding a way to kill penalties,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “.All of a sudden you’re down 3-1 and you just don’t have much room for error against a real good team. I thought after the first, I didn’t think we won any stick battles, won any physical battles. So when you do, they’re just going to skate through you, and they skated through us too much.”
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FRIDAY’S GAME: Wings zapped by Lightning’s power play twice in 3-1 loss
Saturday marked the end of seven straight games against teams jockeying for playoff positioning. The Wings won in a shootout at the New York Rangers and in overtime at home against the Carolina Hurricanes, but also suffered five losses, including a 7-4 loss at the Minnesota Wild, a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, and the nadir of the season (hopefully, anyway): a 10-7 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Ruts to the box
Dylan Larkin started the Wings’ parade to the penalty box, taking a high-sticking call at 10:09 of the first period. Anthony Duclair scored during that power play, one-timing a pass from Sam Reinhart. The Wings had a man advantage at 13:24, but Sergei Bobrovsky stopped Larkin’s one-timer from the right circle, and denied Moritz Seider when he drove to the net and fired a wrist shot. Seconds after their power play ended, Gagner went to the box for tripping, and with four seconds left in that penalty, Marc Staal followed. Anton Lundell converted with 1:52 left in the first period, as the Wings’ penalty kill again came up short.
“Our PK is struggling right now, so we just have to stop the bleeding,” Blashill said. “It’s going to have to happen one kill at a time. We have to find a way to be better on it.
“Really when you look at it, we gave up two power play goals, we gave up pretty close to a short-handed goal, so we have to do a better job on our special teams. We have to make sure we do a better job, when we get down, of finding a way to fight our way back in.”
Greiss gets the hook
If there’s a positive to come out of the past week, it’s that Nedeljkovic seems to have regained his groove after a shaky stretch. He was supposed to have Saturday off after starting Friday — he made 35 saves against the Lightning — but replaced Greiss midway through the game, after goals from Sam Bennett and Lucas Carlsson left Greiss with five goals allowed on 23 shots. Greiss had a good outing against the Rangers, but part of the blame for Saturday’s loss falls on his subpar goaltending. Having chased Greiss, the Panthers set to work on Nedeljkovic, and Lundell scored his second of the game to make it 6-1, at 16:13 of the second period.
Shooting mentality
Passing up shots has been a regular lament of Blashill’s, and Danny DeKeyser provided a good example of the power of taking a shot in the first period. He got the puck back from Gustav Lindstrom and sent a wrist shot on net. Fabbri redirected the shot, and the Wings had a 1-1 game. It was Fabbri’s second goal in two games, and stemmed some of the momentum the opponent had built, just as his marker Friday did. Both nights, Fabbri scored within minutes of the Wings falling behind, 1-0.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.